Tertullian (ca. 160-after 220?) did not write any psalm commentaries, but did make extensive use of the Psalms in his works. The compiled list below was tabulated as I did research for my dissertation, and is largely unedited from its note form.
IN ANF III
- The Apology – No explicit references to the psalms or to David.
- To Scapula (215ff) – no references to David or the Psalms
- Ad Nationes (223ff) – no references to David or the Psalms
- The Soul’s Testimony (366ff) – no reference to David or the Psalms
- Against the Valentinians (1110ff) – no reference to David or the Psalms
- On Baptism (1487) – no mention of David or the Psalms explicitly
- On Prayer (1518) – no mention of David or the Psalms explicitly
- Ad Martyras (1552) – no mention of David or the Psalms explicitly
- The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas (1560) – no mention of David or the Psalms explicitly
- On Patience (1578) – no mention of David or the Psalms explicitly
IN ANF IV
- On the Pallium (6) – no references to David or the Psalms
- On the Apparel of Women (25) – no references to David or the Psalms
- On the Veiling of Virgins (58) – no references to David or the Psalms
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
IV (121) |
115:8 |
In which sentence David equally includes the makers too.
“Such,” says he, “let them become who make them.” |
|
XX (149) |
Ps 24:4; 96:5 |
Whoever, therefore, honours an idol with the name of God,
has fallen into idolatry. But if I speak of them as gods, something must be
added to make it appear that I do not call them gods. For even the Scripture
names “gods,” but adds “their,” viz. “of the nations:” just as David does
when he had named “gods,” where he says, “But the gods of the nations are
demons.” But this has been laid by me rather as a foundation for ensuing
observations. |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
III (161) |
1:1 |
But we find that that first word of David bears on this
very sort of thing: “Blessed,” he says, “is the man who has not gone into the
assembly of the impious, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat
of scorners.”353 Though he seems to have predicted beforehand of that just
man, that he took no part in the meetings and deliberations of the Jews,
taking counsel about the slaying of our Lord, yet divine Scripture has ever
far-reaching applications: after the immediate sense has been exhausted, in all
directions it fortifies the practice of the religious life, so that here also
you have an utterance which is not far from a plain interdicting of the
shows. |
|
XV (175) |
49:18 |
Moreover, a man pronounces his own condemnation in the
very act of taking his place among those with whom, by his disinclination to
be like them, he confesses he has no sympathy. It is not enough that we do no
such things ourselves, unless we break all connection also with those who do.
“If thou sawest a thief,” says the Scripture, “thou consentedst with him.”363
Would that we did not even inhabit the same world with these wicked men! But
though that wish cannot be realized, yet even now we are separate from them
in what is of the world; for the world is God’s, but the worldly is the
devil’s. |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
X (204) |
115:4-8 |
The apostle, moreover, forbids us to abuse, while he would
more naturally have taught us not to use, unless on the ground that, where
there is no sense for things, there is no wrong use of them. But the whole
affair is meaningless, and is, in fact, a dead work so far as concerns the
idols; though, without doubt, a living one as respects the demons409 to whom
the religious rite belongs. “The idols of the heathen,” says David, “are
silver and gold.” “They have eyes, and see not; a nose, and smell not; hands,
and they will not handle.”410 By means of these organs, indeed, we are to
enjoy flowers; but if he declares that those who make idols will be like
them, they already are so who use anything after the style of idol adornings. |
|
XIII (209) |
20:7 |
Your Lord, when, according to the Scripture, He would
enter Jerusalem in triumph, had not even an ass of His own. These (put their
trust) in chariots, and these in horses; but we will seek our help in the
name of the Lord our God. |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
II (320) |
Ps 110:4 |
Speaking about Melchizedek |
|
III (324) |
Ps 18:43-44 Ps 78:25 |
Ps 18 was an announcement made by prophets Quoted for telling the history |
|
IV (327-328) |
Ps 96:7-8; cf. 29:1-2 |
Davidsays” in the Psalms |
|
IV (328) |
Ps 51:17; 50:14 |
Quoted to support an argument about spiritual sacrifices |
|
VII (330) |
Ps 19:4 |
“in the Psalms of David” |
|
VIII (336) |
Ps 22:16 |
“as in the Psalms it is prophesied” |
|
IX (339) |
Ps 72:15, 10 |
“David likewise says” |
|
IX (340) |
Ps 45:3, 2, 5 Ps 45:5 |
These are about Christ, as said by David. War-like imagery interpreted as about the Word
of God, the double-edged sword; the “Christ of God” is in the Psalms, “in the
eye of David, when he was announced as about to come to earth in obedience to
God the Father’s decree” |
|
IX (342) |
Ps 132:17 |
“for David predicts” concerning John the Baptist |
|
X (345) |
Ps 35:12 Ps 69:4 Ps 22:16 Ps 69:21 Ps 22:18 |
Of the passion and death of Christ, “the Spirit himself of
Christ was already singing [in the Psalms]. |
|
X (348) |
Ps 96:10 Ps 22:16, 21 |
“in the utterance of the prophet in the Psalms” “if you shall still seek for predictions of the Lord’s
cross, the [22nd] Psalms will at length be able to satisfy you, containing as
it does the whole passion of Christ; singing, as he does, even at so early a
date, his own glory”; “”again when he implores the aid of the Father”; “which
cross neither David himself suffered, nor any of the kings of the Jews: that
you may not think the passion of some other particular man is here prophesied
than his who alone was so signally crucified by the people” |
|
XII (354) |
Ps 2:7-8 |
“the promise of the Father in the Psalms, which says” “For you will not be able to affirm that ‘son’ to be David
rather Christ; or the ‘bounds of the earth’ to have been promised rather to
David, who reigned within the single (country of) Judea, than to Christ, who
has already taken captive the whole orb with the faith of his gospel” |
|
XIII (356) |
Ps 22:16-17; 69:21 Ps 67:6; 85:12 |
A second time, in fact, let us show that Christ is already
come, (as foretold) through the prophets, and has suffered, and is already
received back in the heavens, and thence is to come accordingly as the
predictions prophesied. And in the Psalms, David says: “They exterminated my hands
and feet: they counted all my bones; they themselves, moreover, contemplated
and saw me, and in my thirst slaked me with vinegar.” These things David did
not suffer, so as to seem justly to have spoken of himself; but the Christ
who was crucified. Moreover, the “hands and feet,” are not
“exterminated,”1397 except His who is suspended on a “tree.” Whence, again,
David said that “the Lord would reign from the tree:”1398 for elsewhere, too,
the prophet predicts the fruit of this “tree,” saying “The earth hath given
her blessings,”1399—ofcourse that virgin-earth, not yet irrigated with rains,
nor fertilized by showers, out of which man was of yore first formed, out of
which now Christ through the flesh has been born of a virgin; |
|
XIII (360) |
Ps 59:11 |
“in the Psalm” |
|
XIV (362) |
Ps 38:17 Ps 8:5 Ps 22:6 |
Quoted of Christ’s un-appealing looks Quoted of his position lower than angels “He pronounces himself” = Christ as speaker in Ps 22 |
|
XIV (363) |
Ps 8:5-6 |
Quoted of Christ’s subsequent honoring in the
resurrection/ascension |
|
XIV (364) |
Ps 110:4 |
Christ was named the Priest of God the Father unto
eternity |
|
XIV (365) |
Ps 2:6-8 Ps 89:3,4,29, 35, 36, 37 |
Quoted as the promise of the Father to the Son about the
Gentiles A throne “unto the age” speaks more suitable to Christ
than Solomon |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
XV (407) |
139:23; 51:12 |
These psalms are quoted in support of the view that there
is a ruling power in the soul, and that it is enshrined in the body; “when
God himself anticipates in his people the thoughts of their heart” (139);
“when David prays” (Ps 51) |
|
IXI (420) |
Ps 8:2 |
“For Christ, [by 8:2], has declared that neither childhood
nor infancy is without sensibility” |
|
XXXII (447) |
49:20 |
“For although some men are compared to the beasts because
of their character, disposition, and pursuits… |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
XX (526) |
109:8 |
The prophecy of Matthias filling up the spot left by Judas
“on the authority of a prophecy, which occurs in a psalm of David” |
Five Books Against Marcion (569) – I (573), II (636), III (696), IV (750), V (936)
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
I:vii (586) |
Ps 82:1, 6 |
Quoted in discussion about the name ‘god’ |
|
I:xxi (614) |
Ps 2:1-3 |
“just as the Psalmist declared” about the nature of Christ
and the unity of God between the old and new laws |
|
II:iv (643) |
Ps 45:1 |
God is understood as the speaker, concerning his Word |
|
II.viii (653) |
Ps 104:4 |
Used in argumentation about angels |
|
II:xix (674) |
Ps 1:2 Ps 34:13-14 Ps 4:4 Ps 1:1 |
Used to say that
the OT laws were to be a delight, not a severity Ps 34, 4, and 1, are quoted to support the idea that “the
prophets were also ordained by the self-same goodness of God, teaching
precepts worthy of God, how that men should…” |
|
II:xix (675) |
Ps 133:1 Ps 118:4 Ps 1:3 Ps 24:4-5 Ps 33:18-19 Ps 34:19 Ps 116:15 Ps 34:20, 22 |
All of these are quoted at length to continue support of
above. It’s a great compilation that
shows unity in perspective. Section
closes with this, We have adduced these few quotations from a mass of the
Creator’s Scriptures; and no more, I suppose, are wanted to prove Him to be a
most good God, for they sufficiently indicate both the precepts of His
goodness and the first-fruits thereof” |
|
II:xxii (679) |
Ps 50:13 |
Used in argument about sacrifices |
|
II:xxvii (690) |
Ps 8:6 |
“As is written in David,” God made his Son a little lower… |
|
III:vii (709) |
Ps 8:6 Ps 22:7 |
Quoted in support of the idea of Jesus’ uncomliness;
“declaring himself to be” in 22:7 |
|
III:vii (710) |
Ps 45:2-3 Ps 8:5-6 |
Used to describe the Christ, about how the Father will
bring glory again upon the Son |
|
III:xiii (721-22) |
Ps 72:15, Ps 72:10 |
The gift of gold, “David also says” “and again” |
|
III:xiv (723) |
Ps 45:2-4 |
“say David” in the psalm, about Christ |
|
III:xiv (724) |
Ps 45:4-5 |
Continued from above. |
|
III:xvii (729) |
Ps 45:2 Ps 22:6 |
Here, Ps 45 is “David’s words” to support the beauty of
Christ, but “according to the same prophet”, Christ is a worm (Ps 22) |
|
III:xix (733) |
Ps 96:10 Ps 22; 22:16 |
“when you read in the words of David” (96:10) “If you require still further prediction of the Lord’s
cross, the [22nd] psalm is sufficiently able to afford it to you, containing
as it does the entire passion of Christ, who was even then prophetically
declaring his glory”; and later, “and again, when He implores His Father’s
help, He says” |
|
III:xx (735) |
Ps 2:7 |
“the Father’s promise in the Psalms” about the nations |
|
III:xx (736) |
Ps 132:11 |
“Touching this promise of Him [Christ is reckoned to
spring from David by carnal descent], there is the oath to David in the
psalm” |
|
III:xxii (740) |
Ps 19:5 Ps 2:2-3 |
“the psalm” speaks concerning “the words of them who carry
round about the law that proceeded from Sion and the Lord’s word from
Jerusalem” The suffering of Christ and the hands of the Jews and
Gentiles was prophesied, and likewise for his apostles and all the faithful |
|
III:xxii (741) |
Ps 22:22, 25 Ps 68:26 |
Both psalms are used to support the idea that the brethren
or children of God would father together to ascribe glory to God; in the
“twenty-first psalm” and “in the sixty-seventh psalm”; the Creator is
understood as the one speaking |
|
III:xxiii (744) |
Ps 59:11 |
“In the fifty-eighth psalm He [Christ] demands of the
Father their dispersion” |
|
IV:i (751) |
Ps 19:7 |
“according to David also,” referring to the law and word
of the gospel |
|
IV:vii (769) |
Ps 16:10 |
“how the prophet had prophesied of the ‘Holy One’ of God” |
|
IV:xi (785) |
Ps 19:5-6 |
“I hold also that it is my Christ who is meant by the
bridegroom, of whom the psalm says” |
|
IV:xi (787) |
Ps 78:2 |
Quoted in relation to the questions and mysteries about
the relationship between the gospel coming out of the OT scriptures; I think
the “He” speaking is God for Tertullian here |
|
IV:xiii (793) |
Ps 22:2 Ps 3:4 |
“Moreover, concerning the voice of His prayer to the
Father by night, the psalm manifestly says”, of Ps 22 “In another passage
touching the same voice and place, the psalm says” |
|
IV:xiii (795) |
Ps 87:4-5 |
Quoted prophetically to support those from Tyre coming to
Christ, “the psalm had in view” |
|
IV:xiv (796) |
Ps 45:1 Ps 82:3-4 Ps 72:4, 11 |
Viewed as the voice of the Creator (Father), the gospel Quoted for God’s attributes, “in the psalm” Quoted for God’s attributes, “in the seventy-first psalm” “And in the following words he says of Christ” (72:11) |
|
IV:xiv (797) |
Ps 72:12-14 Ps 9:17-18 Ps 103:5-8 |
“He had taken upon himself the condition of the poor, and
such as were oppressed with want” (72:12ff) “Again” (Ps 9) “Again” (Ps 103) |
|
IV:xiv (798) |
Ps 126:5 |
“Surely gladness and joyous exultation is promised to
those who are in an opposite condition—to the sorrowful, and sad, and
anxious. Just as it is said in the
125th psalm” |
|
IV:xv (804) |
Ps 49:16-17 Ps 62:11 |
Quoted as a consolation concerning the rich; no persona
help |
|
IV:xv (805) |
Ps 126:5 Ps 118:8-9 |
“as it is written in the psalm” Quoted in support of seeking God’s approval, not man’s |
|
IV:xvii (813) |
Ps 19:11 |
Quoted to describe the kindness of God’s spiritual
blessings; no help |
|
IV:xx (825) |
Ps 29:3 |
“As psalm is, in fact, accomplished by this crossing over
the lake….says the psalmist.” |
|
IV:xx (826) |
Ps 29:8 |
“Christ also must be understood to be an exterminator of
spiritual foes , who wields spiritual arms and fights in spiritual strife….
Therefore it is of such a war as this that the Psalm may evidently have
spoken” |
|
IV:xxi (834) |
Ps 8:6 Ps 22:6 |
Speaking of Christ’s humiliation |
|
IV:xxii (837) |
Ps 2:7 |
“But there was the accustomed voice from heaven, and the
Father’s testimony to the Son; precisely as in the first Psalm He had said” =
note: not the second, but first psalm. |
|
IV:xxiv (848) |
Ps 91:13 |
“This power the Creator conferred first of all upon His
Christ, even as the ninetieth Psalm says to Him” |
|
IV:xxv (851) |
Ps 2:8 |
“Scripture clearly says that a transfer of all things
has been made to the Son” |
|
IV:xxvi (856) |
Ps 68:25 |
Reference to the bread of angels; no help |
|
IV:xxvii (861) |
Ps 118:9 |
Moral exhortation |
|
IV:xxix (871) |
Ps 97:3 |
“Of Him the psalmist sang” = voice of the psalmist. |
|
IV:xxxv (895) |
Ps 118:21 |
Christ borrowed the word ‘rejected’ from Ps 118, where
“His twofold manifestation was celebrated by David—the first in rejection,
the second in honor” |
|
IV:xxxix (910) |
Ps 9:18 Ps 116 |
Speaking of the patient endurance of God and his saints |
|
IV:xxxix (911) |
Ps 2:8 |
“…even all nations, which in the Psalm the Father had
promised to give to him” |
|
IV:xl (914) |
Ps 41:9 |
Quoted as a prophecy fulfilled by Christ = he must be the
speaker? |
|
IV:xli (918) |
Ps 110:1 |
“It was on the authority of…David’s Psalm, that He would
sit at the right hand of God.” |
|
IV:xlii (920) |
Ps 2:1-2 |
“And then He fulfilled all that had been written of His
passion. At that time ‘the heathen
raged…”; heathen = Pilate and the Romans; people = tribes of Israel; kings =
Herod; rulers = chief priests |
|
IV:xlii (921) |
Ps 22 |
Even if you delete the account of the passion from the
Gospels, as Marcion apparently had, you still have the testimony from Ps 22
concerning it, so “still all the Psalm (compensates) the vesture of Christ” |
|
IV:xlii (922) |
Ps 31:5 |
“With what constancy has He also, in Psalm xxx, labored to
present to us the very Christ! He calls with a loud voice to the
Father...[quote]…that even when dying He might expend His last breath in
fulfilling the prophets” |
|
IV:xlii (923) |
Ps 1:1 |
Quoted, apparently, to characterize Joseph of Arimathea as
one who stood apart from the Jews in their crime, and instead doing the right
thing |
|
IV:xliii (926) |
Ps 19:4 |
When Jesus sent forth the apostles to preach the gospel
among the nations, this fulfilled Ps 19:4 |
|
V:iii (948) |
Ps 2:1-3 |
“For he remembered that the time was come of which the
Psalm spake…[quotes]…in order that thenceforward man might be justified by
the liberty of faith” |
|
V:iv (954) |
Ps 2:2-3 |
Same as above |
|
V:vi (965) |
Ps 118:8-9 |
Moral exhortation about trusting in God, not men |
|
V:vii (966) |
Ps 7:9 |
Quoted about Christ being a lamp |
|
V:viii (972) |
Ps 68:18 |
Quoted in relation to Christ |
|
V:ix (977) |
Ps 110 |
“He speaks of a God of vengeance, and therefore of Him who
made the following promise to Christ…[quote 110] |
|
V:ix (978-79) |
Ps 110:3-4 Ps 72:1, 6 |
Ps 110 is about Christ, not Hezekiah; thorough exegesis Ps 72 is about Christ and his people, not Solomon |
|
V:ix (980) |
Ps 72 |
Above |
|
V:xi (991) |
Ps 4:7 |
“The Spirit in the Psalm answers, in His foresight of the
future, saying”; countenance = Christ |
|
V:xiv (1005) |
Ps 2:2 Ps 34:14 |
Out of ignorance, they did this… To support against Marcion, moral precepts |
|
V:xiv (1006) |
Ps 118:9 Ps 20:1 |
As above |
|
V:xvii (1016) |
Ps 24:10 Ps 2:8 |
“Therefore the Spirit and the Gospel will be found in the
Christ, who was foretrusted, because foretold. Again, ‘the Father of glory’ is He whose
Christ, when ascending to heaven, is celebrated as ‘the King of Glory’ in the
Psalm” Promise of the Gentiles, Ps 2 |
|
V:xvii (1017) |
Ps 110:1 Ps 8:7 |
Spoken of Christ (110) “For in another passage the Spirit says to the Father
concerning the Son” (Ps 8) |
|
V:xvii (1020) |
Ps 118:22 |
On Paul’s use of the prophets, “For when did he learn to
call Christ ‘the chief cornerstone’ but from the figure given him in the
Psalm” |
|
V:xviii (1022) |
Ps 45:3 Ps 4:4 |
“For when by David Christ is sung as ‘girded with….” “and again, using the very words in which the psalm
expresses his meaning…” |
|
V:xviii (1023) |
Ps 18:26 |
Quoted in support of Eph 5:11 |
|
V:xix (1027) |
Ps 19:4 |
“But should Marcion’s gospel succeed in filling the whole
world, it would not even in that case be entitled to the character of
apostolic. For this quality, it will
be evident, can only belong to that gospel which was the first to fill the
world; in other words, to the gospel of that God who of old declared this of
its promulgation.” |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
V (1045) |
82:6 |
“We shall be even gods, if we, shall deserve to be among
those of whom He declared, “I have said, Ye are gods,” and, “God standeth in
the congregation of the gods. But this comes of His own grace, not from any
property in us, because it is He alone who can make gods. The property of
Matter, however, he makes to be that which it has in common with God” |
|
XI (1054-55) |
110:1 |
“There is to be an end to evil….when the Father shall have
put beneath the feet of His Son his enemies” |
|
XVIII (1066) |
45:1 |
On this principle, then, if evil is indeed unbegotten,
whilst the Son of God is begotten (“for,” says God, “my heart hath
emitted my most excellent Word”), I am not quite sure that evil may not be
introduced by good, the stronger by the weak, in the same way as the
unbegotten is by the begotten. |
|
XXIX (1082) |
24:1 |
Quoted in support of his understanding of the creation of
the world, “does David say” |
|
XXXIV (1093) |
102:25-26 97:5 |
Quoted to support the idea that the heavens and earth will
both pass away, “David says” (102) Ps 97 quoted for further support, no clue on author |
|
XLV (1108) |
Ps 33:6 Ps 102:25 Ps 64:7 |
Quoted for its content. Quoted as talking about the Son “There are the energies by the stress of which He made
this universe” |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
VI (1176) |
Ps 78:24 |
Obscure reference in relation to the nature of angel’s
bodies; “says the Psalmist” |
|
XIV (1191) |
Ps 8:5 |
Forasmuch, however, as it has been declared concerning the
Son Himself, “Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels” how will it
appear that He put on the nature of angels if He was made lower than the
angels, having become man, with flesh and soul as the Son of man? |
|
XV (1194) |
Ps 8:6 Ps 22:6 |
Such views are not improper for heathens and they are fit
and natural for the heretics too. For, indeed, what difference is there
between them, except it be that the heathen, in not believing, do believe;
while the heretics, in believing, do not believe? Then, again, they read:
“Thou madest Him a little less than angels;” and they deny the lower nature
of that Christ who declares Himself to be, “not a man, but a worm;” |
|
XX (1203) |
Ps 22:9-10 |
We shall have also the support of the Psalms on this
point, not the “Psalms” indeed of Valentinus the apostate, and heretic, and
Platonist, but the Psalms of David, the most illustrious saint and well-known
prophet. He sings to us of Christ, and through his voice Christ indeed also
sang concerning Himself. Hear, then, Christ the Lord speaking to God the
Father: “Thou art He that didst draw me out of my mother’s womb.” Here is the
first point. “Thou art my hope from my mother’s breasts; upon Thee have I been
cast from the womb.” Here is another point. “Thou art my God from my mother’s
belly.” |
|
XXI (1206) |
PS 132:11 |
for every step indeed in a genealogy is traced from the
latest up to the first, so that it is now a wellknown fact that the flesh of
Christ is inseparable, not merely from Mary, but also from David through
Mary, and from Jesse through David. “This fruit,” therefore, “of David’s
loins,” that is to say, of his posterity in the flesh, God swears to him that
“He will raise up to sit upon his throne.” If “of David’s loins,” how much
rather is He of Mary’s loins, by virtue of whom He is in “the loins of David?” |
On the Resurrection of the Flesh (1215)
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
XX (1248) |
Ps 2:1-2 Ps 22:17-18 Ps 69:22 Ps 22:8 |
Now, to upset all conceits of this sort, let me dispel at
once the preliminary idea on which they rest—their assertion that the
prophets make all their announcements in figures of speech. Now, if this were
the case, the figures themselves could not possibly have been distinguished,
inasmuch as the verities would not have been declared, out of which the
figurative language is stretched. And, indeed, if all are figures, where will
be that of which they are the figures? How can you hold up a mirror for your
face, if the face nowhere exists? But, in truth, all are not figures, but
there are also literal statements; nor are all shadows, but there are bodies
too: so that we have prophecies about the Lord Himself even, which are
clearer than the day. For in the person of Pilate “the heathen raged,” and in
the person of Israel “the people imagined vain things;” “the kings of the
earth” in Herod, and the rulers in Annas and Caiaphas, were gathered together
“against the Lord, and against His anointed.” He, again, was “led as a sheep
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearer,” that is, Herod, “is
dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” “He gave His back to scourges, and His
cheeks to blows, not turning His face even from the shame of spitting.” “He
was numbered with the transgressors;” “He was pierced in His hands and His
feet;” “they cast lots for his raiment;” “they gave Him gall, and made Him
drink vinegar;” “they shook their heads, and mocked Him;” “He was appraised
by the traitor in thirty pieces of silver.” What figures of speech does
Isaiah here give us? What tropes does David? What allegories does Jeremiah? |
|
XXII (1252) |
Ps 110:1 |
Who is it then, that has aroused the Lord, now at God’s
right hand, so unseasonably and with such severity “shake terribly” (as
Isaiah expresses it) “that earth,” which, I suppose, is as yet unshattered?
Who has thus early put “Christ’s enemies beneath His feet” (to use the
language of David), making Him more hurried than the Father, whilst every
crowd in our popular assemblies is still with shouts consigning “the
Christians to the lions?” |
|
XXVI (1258) |
Ps 97:1 |
When, therefore, God even threatens the earth, I would
prefer saying that He threatens the flesh: so likewise, when He makes a
promise to the earth, I would rather understand Him as promising the flesh;
as in that passage of David: “The Lord is King, let the earth be
glad,”—meaning the flesh of the saints, to which appertains the enjoyment of
the kingdom of God. Then he afterwards says: “The earth saw and trembled; the
mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,”—meaning, no doubt the
flesh of the wicked; |
|
XLIV (1290) |
Ps 107:16 |
Else to what epoch belongs that life of the Lord which is
to be manifested in our body? It surely is the life which He lived up to His
passion, which was not only openly shown among the Jews, but has now been
displayed even to all nations. Therefore that life is meant which “has broken
the adamantine gates of death and the brazen bars of the lower world,”—a life
which thenceforth has been and will be ours. Lastly, it is to be manifested
in the body. When? After death. How? By rising in our body, as Christ also
rose in His. |
|
LII (1310) |
Ps 49:20 |
With this view he adds, in a figurative sense, certain
examples of animals and heavenly bodies: “There is one flesh of man” (that
is, servants of God, but really human), “another flesh of beasts” (that is,
the heathen, of whom the prophet actually says, “Man is like the senseless
cattle”) |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
I (1334) |
Ps 91:11 |
Quoted as used by Satan in Matthew, showing distinction
between the Father and the Son |
|
IV (1341) |
Ps 110:1 |
Argues how Paul in 1 Cor 15 follows “the words of the
Psalm” |
|
VII (1345) |
Ps 45:1 Ps 2:7 Ps 33:6 |
and His only-begotten also, because alone begotten of God,
in a way peculiar to Himself, from the womb of His own heart—even as the
Father Himself testifies:
“My heart,” says He, “hath emitted my most excellent Word.” The Father took
pleasure evermore in Him, who equally rejoiced with a reciprocal gladness in
the Father’s presence: “Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten Thee;” even
before the morning star did I beget Thee. ….For if indeed Wisdom in this passage seems to say that
She was created by the Lord with a view to His works, and to accomplish His
ways, yet proof is given in another Scripture that “all things were made by
the Word, and without Him was there nothing made;” as, again, in another
place (it is said), “By His word were the heavens established, and all the
powers thereof by His Spirit”—that is to say, by the Spirit (or Divine
Nature) which was in the Word: thus is it evident that it is one and the same
power which is in one place described under the name of Wisdom, and in
another passage under the appellation of the Word |
|
IX (1350) |
Ps 8:5 |
In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a
little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son,
being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is
begotten is another; He, too, who sends is one, and He who is sent is
another; and He, again, who makes is one, and He through whom the thing is
made is another |
|
XI (1354) |
Ps 2:7 Ps 110:3 |
on my side I advance the passage where the Father said to
the Son, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” If you want me to
believe Him to be both the Father and the Son, show me some other passage
where it is declared, “The Lord said unto Himself, I am my own Son, to-day
have I begotten myself;” or again, “Before the morning did I beget myself;” |
|
XI (1355) |
Ps 71:18 Ps 3:1 Ps 110:1 |
Hear now also the Son’s utterances respecting the Father:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the
gospel unto men.”7883 He speaks of Himself likewise to the Father in the
Psalm: “Forsake me not until I have declared the might of Thine arm to all
the generation that is to come.”7884 Also to the same purport in another
Psalm: “O Lord, how are they increased that trouble me!”7885 But almost all
the Psalms which prophesy of7886 the person of Christ, represent the Son as
conversing with the Father—that is, represent Christ (as speaking) to God.
Observe also the Spirit speaking of the Father and the Son, in the character
of7887 a third Person: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right
hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”7888 |
|
XIII (1359) |
Ps 45:6-7 Ps 110:1 |
listen to the psalm in which Two are described as God:
“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a
sceptre of righteousness. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity:
therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee or made Thee His Christ.”
Now, since He here speaks to God, and affirms that God is anointed by God, He
must have affirmed that Two are God, by reason of the sceptre’s royal power. “…… I find in Scripture the name Lord also applied to them
Both: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand.” |
|
XIII (1360) |
Ps 82:1, 6 |
If, indeed, you follow those who did not at the time
endure the Lord when showing Himself to be the Son of God, because they would
not believe Him to be the Lord, then (I ask you) call to mind along with them
the passage where it is written, “I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are
children of the Most High;”7912 and again, “God standeth in the congregation
of gods;”7913 in order that, if the Scripture has not been afraid to
designate as gods human beings, who have become sons of God by faith, you may
be sure that the same Scripture has with greater propriety conferred the name
of the Lord on the true and one only Son of God. |
|
XVI (1369) |
Ps 8:6 |
whatever other (weaknesses and imperfections) the heretics
lay hold of (in their assumptions) as unworthy of God, in order to discredit
the Creator, not considering that these circumstances are suitable enough for
the Son, who was one day to experience even human sufferings—hunger and
thirst, and tears, and actual birth and real death, and in respect of such a
dispensation “made by the Father a little less than the angels.”7970 But the
heretics, you may be sure, will not allow that those things are suitable even
to the Son of God, which you are imputing to the very Father Himself, when
you pretend7971 that He made Himself less (than the angels) on our account;
whereas the Scripture informs us that He who was made less was so affected by
another, and not Himself by Himself. What, again, if He was One who was
“crowned with glory and honour,” and He Another by whom He was so
crowned,7972—the Son, in fact, by the Father? |
|
XVII (1371) |
Ps 118:26 |
They more readily supposed that the Father acted in the
Son’s name, than that the Son acted in the Father’s; although the Lord says
Himself, “I am come in my Father’s name;”7979 613 and even to the Father He
declares, “I have manifested Thy name unto these men;”7980 whilst the
Scripture likewise says, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord,”7981 that is to say, the Son in the Father’s name. |
|
XIX (1374) |
Ps 33:6 |
And if I am not mistaken, there is also another passage in
which it is written: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all
the hosts of them by His Spirit.”7995 Now this Word, the Power of God and the
Wisdom of God, must be the very Son of God. |
|
XIX (1375) |
Ps 33:6 |
By thus attaching the Son to Himself, He becomes His own
interpreter in what sense He stretched out the heavens alone, meaning alone
with His Son, even as He is one with His Son. The utterance, therefore, will
be in like manner the Son’s, “I have stretched out the heavens alone,”
because by the Word were the heavens established. |
|
XXIII (1386) |
Ps 8:5 |
He taught us to raise ourselves, and pray, “Our Father
which art in heaven,” etc.,—although, indeed, He is everywhere present. This
heaven the Father willed to be His own throne; while He made the Son to be “a
little lower than the angels,” by sending Him down to the earth, but meaning
at the same time to “crown Him with glory and honour,” even by taking Him
back to heaven. |
|
XXVII (1396) |
Ps 87:5 |
Besides, the flesh is not God, so that it could not have
been said concerning it, “That Holy Thing shall be called the Son of God,”
but only that Divine Being who was born in the flesh, of whom the psalm also
says, “Since God became man in the midst of it, and established it by the
will of the Father.” |
|
XXVIII (1400) |
Ps 2:2 |
And if “the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ,”8170 that
Lord must be another Being, against whose Christ were gathered together the
kings and the rulers |
|
XXX (1403) |
Ps 110:1 |
He is seen by Stephen, at his martyrdom by stoning, still
sitting at the right hand of God8195 where He will continue to sit, until the
Father shall make His enemies His footstool.8196 |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
I (1413) |
Ps 50:13 |
Or does God importune for the blood of men, especially if
He refuses that of bulls and he-goats? |
|
I (1414) |
Ps 19:10 |
If the utterances of the Lord are sweeter than honey and
the honeycombs, 8225 the juices are from that source. |
|
II (1417) |
Ps 135:15 |
But from the mouth of every prophet in succession, sound
forth also utterances of the same God, augmenting the same law of His by a
renewal of the same commands, and in the first place announcing no other duty
in so special a manner as the being on guard against all making and
worshipping of idols; as when by the mouth of David He says: “The gods of the
nations are silver and gold: they have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and
hear not; they have a nose, and smell not; a mouth, and they speak not; hands,
and they handle not; feet and they walk not. Like to them shall be they who
make them, and trust in them.”8245 |
|
VI (1424) |
Ps 32:1 |
And concerning the happiness of the man who has partaken
of these, David says: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin.” |
|
VIII (1427) |
Ps 116:15 |
Since the death of His own saints is precious is His
sight, as David sings, it is not, I think, that one which falls to the lot of
men generally, and is a debt due by all (rather is that one even disgraceful
on account of the trespass, and the desert of condemnation to which it is to
be traced), but that other which is met in this very work—in bearing witness
for religion, and maintaining the fight of confession in behalf of
righteousness and the sacrament. |
|
X (1433) |
Ps 24:7 |
What powers do you set in order at the railings? If you
have ever read in David, “Lift up your gates, ye princes, and let the
everlasting gates be lifted up; and the King of glory shall enter in;”8280 if
you have also heard from Amos, “Who buildeth up to the heavens his way of
ascent, and is such as to pour forth his abundance (of waters) over the
earth;”8281 know that both that way of ascent was thereafter levelled with
the ground, by the footsteps of the Lord, and an entrance thereafter opened
up by the might of Christ, and that no delay or inquest will meet Christians
on the threshold, since they have there to be not discriminated from one
another, but owned, and not put to the question, but received in. |
On Repentance (1462) – no mention of David
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
IV (1462) |
Ps 2:9 Ps 1:3 |
Seize the opportunity of unexpected felicity: that you,
who sometime were in God’s sight nothing but...“a potter’s vessel,” may
thenceforward become that “tree which is sown beside the waters, is perennial
in leaves, bears fruit at its own time,” |
FROM ANF 4
To His Wife (86) – no references to David, only 1 to the psalms (unhelpful)
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
II:I (101) |
69:23 |
Used as a turn of phrase; not much here. |
On Exhortation to Chastity (116) – no references to David
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
X (131) |
18:25-26 |
Quoted as a “prophetic utterance of the Old Testament,”
calling towards holiness |
On Monogamy (139)
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
VI (149) |
37:27 |
In a turn of phrase; no help. |
On Modesty (174)
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
VI (184) |
1:1; 19:7 |
The law of piety, sanctity, humanity, truth, chastity,
justice, mercy, benevolence, modesty, remains in its entirety; in which law
“blessed (is) the man who shall meditate by day and by night.” About that (law) the same David (says) again: “The law of
the Lord (is) unblameable, converting souls; the statutes of the Lord (are)
direct, delighting hearts; the precept of the Lord far-shining, enlightening
eyes.” |
|
XVIII (217) |
1:1; 26:4-6; 18:25-26; 50:16-18 |
You have at the very outset of the Psalms, “Blessed the
man who hath not gone astray in the counsel of the impious, nor stood in the
way of sinners, and sat in the state-chair of pestilence;” (1.1) whose voice,
withal, (is heard) subsequently: “I have not sat with the conclave of vanity;
and with them who act iniquitously will I not enter”—this (has to do with
“the church” of such as act ill—“and with the impious will I not sit;”
(26:4-5) and, “I will wash with the innocent mine hands, and Thine altar will
I surround, Lord”(26:6)—as being “a host in himself”—inasmuch as indeed “With
an holy (man), holy Thou wilt be; and with an innocent man, innocent Thou
wilt be; and with an elect, elect Thou wilt be; and with a perverse, perverse
Thou wilt be.”(18:25-26) And elsewhere: “But to the sinner saith the Lord,
Why expoundest thou my righteous acts, and takest up my testament through thy
mouth? If thou sawest a thief, thou rannest with him; and with adulterers thy
portion thou madest.”(50:16,18) |
On Fasting (235)
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
IX (247-48) |
Loosely 102:9 |
As an example of when we need to eat dry food |
|
XIII (256) |
133 |
And how worthy a thing is this, that, under the auspices
of faith, men should congregate from all quarters to Christ! “See, how good
and how enjoyable for brethren to dwell in unity!” This psalm you know not
easily how to sing, except when you are supping with a goodly company! |
|
Reference |
Psalm |
Usage |
|
§6 (272) |
19:4 |
This is alluded to in how the apostles moved beyond Judea
to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles in all the earth |
|
§12 (278) |
24:7 |
Seems to be alluded to in how mankind has been redeemed
and will attain heaven |
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